BOLLYWOOD COWBOYS AND INDIANS FROM INDIA
January 14 to March 8, 2002
Contact Sheet 115
Born in England, raised in India, and currently residing in the United States, Annu Palakunnathu Matthew has struggled with issues of identity and her relationship to the culture of her ancestry, her place of birth, and her current place of residence. This exhibition brings together two recent series of work, Bollywood Satirized and An Indian from India. Both series pose the question "Where do I belong?" which is a recurrent thread that runs throughout the artist's work.
Throughout her career Matthew has used photography as a means of making connections to her own cultural background, but also as a method of pointing out those aspects which distance her from the same heritage. In these two bodies of work Matthew looks to both historic and contemporary examples of how images continue to shape perception and reinforce stereotypes which she must fend off both as a woman and an Indian (from India).
From the series
Bollywood Satirized